


a memory of how we used to be

by inquisitor_tohru



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire - Delilah S. Dawson
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Heavy Angst, Introspection, Not A Fix-It, Short One Shot, The First Order Sucks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27616006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitor_tohru/pseuds/inquisitor_tohru
Summary: Some directions were easy to follow.
Relationships: Cardinal & Armitage Hux
Kudos: 2
Collections: write to my heart





	a memory of how we used to be

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the **write to my heart** shiritori community! My starter was from "We're new in the neighborhood and need **some directions."**

Some directions were easy to follow. The proper way to polish your armor, for example, was so straightforward that even the children - the  _ shinies  _ \- with their newly fitted armor were up to the job. They were taught to see that armor as an extension of themselves as soldiers of the First Order, an outward representation of their order and discipline, and a protective shell to keep them safe, all at once. Polishing their armor came as naturally to a stormtrooper as washing their face or brushing their teeth. Following directions, following  _ orders,  _ was easy.

It was when Archex had deviated from that path that everything had begun to spiral out of his control, until chaos reigned and order was but a distant memory. At least, it had seemed that way when he'd drunk himself into a stupor and eventually passed out in his cold stone bunk. In the morning things had not seemed quite so desperate, even as the haze of his intoxication lingered. He was glad at least that Zade was still asleep, disheveled purple hair covering half his face. Archex didn't think he could stomach any kind of scenario in which Zade was up and about before he was out of bed - not even if he was badly injured or ill, which was admittedly ridiculous, especially when they didn't have top of the range medical droids and a steady supply of stims at their disposal. He knew it was down to a lack of credits rather than a lack of concern on the Resistance's part, but that didn't mean there weren't things about his old life that he missed. It just meant that now he was ashamed of missing them. But what he  _ really  _ missed was being useful.

Archex had a purpose now, with the Resistance, but with every jolt of pain and every labored breath, he wondered if he could succeed in anything other than holding his allies back. Everyone else had a role. Even Zade, most often sleeping until noon, had proved himself more useful than him. All Archex could do was stay on the base or forage nearby, cook, make caf, and harvest tarine leaves to make tea that tasted vile and reminded him of a man he pitied and despised in equal measures. 

It had taken a long time for him to understand the kind of man Brendol Hux had been, and he suspected Armitage had always known. Seeing Brendol's abuse for what it was didn't make him hate the younger Hux any less. He was, and would  _ always _ be, the general who'd given the order to destroy an  _ entire system.  _ But Archex thought about what he'd said to Kriki, the truth of it still burning in his chest beside his ruined lungs. Captain Cardinal would have cheered along with the rest of them. As much as he blamed Armitage, as much as he  _ ought  _ to blame him, it was difficult to perceive even the possibility of any other outcome. Since their paths first crossed on Jakku, their fates had been sealed in carbonite, and Archex had finally come to terms with his. His place wasn't here.

He knew what he had to do.


End file.
